About Me

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No Fixed Abode, Home Counties, United Kingdom
I’m a 60-year-old Aspergic gardening CAD-Monkey. Sardonic, cynical and with the political leanings of a social reformer, I’m also a toy and model figure collector, particularly interested in the history of plastics and plastic toys. Other interests are history, current affairs, modern art, and architecture, gardening and natural history. I love plain chocolate, fireworks and trees, but I don’t hug them, I do hug kittens. I hate ignorance, when it can be avoided, so I hate the 'educational' establishment and pity the millions they’ve failed with teaching-to-test and rote 'learning' and I hate the short-sighted stupidity of the entire ruling/industrial elite, with their planet destroying fascism and added “buy-one-get-one-free”. Likewise, I also have no time for fools and little time for the false crap we're all supposed to pretend we haven't noticed, or the games we're supposed to play. I will 'bite the hand that feeds', to remind it why it feeds.
Showing posts with label Mermaids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mermaids. Show all posts

Monday, February 24, 2025

L is for Lots of London Loot - Three IS a Few!

The other half of Peter's August donation, and another eclectic collection of odds and ends, figural and vehicular, structural and peculiar, aqueous and funicular! I know, I shouldn't be allowed!

This was rather ironic, as I'd had one, we may even have seen it here at Small Scale World, if we did I probably mentioned it was incomplete but still eminently playable-with, and would go back to Charity (from whence it came), and which it did . . . now, here's a fully parade-ready example which can go in the collection!

I can't remember if someone ID'd it, or if it's a generic from a big-box action figure play set of the sort you find piled-high in Smyths or B&M, but it's a nice model in a sort of interim M38/Wrangler style, which may be aiming for one of those 1970's Toyota designs?

 
Kinder Barbies, I have had several sets groups of these come in now, more from Peter, some from Charity, probably a couple from Chris, and Brian Carrick may have given me a handful too, the trouble with them is that while, at first glance, the bases look the same, they are all slightly different with specific feet/shoe holes or holds, depending.

And, as you can see, I managed to match-up two before I gave up, not because it was that hard, but because I'd already failed spectacularly to match up a larger sample, last time we looked at them! When they are all together, I'll sit down, make the effort and get them up here, pristine!
 
The earlier sets (covered in Plastic Warrior magazine at the time), had figure specific bases if I recall correctly (they're all in storage again), each base had two figures, or was reused in the series two or something, but there have now been four or five series', and we'll look at them all in an overview one day, with the similar Superhero sets.

Incomplete, but a useful sample, it's one half of an O-gauge level crossing, in tin-plate and die-cast, I don't think it's 'Binns Road' (Hornby), and it doesn't look like Crescent (the other make I'm a bit familiar with, so maybe someone like Chad Valley, or 'Foreign'? I stand to be educated on this one, by someone who actually knows?

A handful of the Supreme/SP Toys 'Silver Knights' a slowly growing sample, which when they are all brought together will have most of the elements now, I think, and hopefully enough weapons and shields to equip that sample properly!

We've seen WOW Eggs before, I think, and there is a mini-season of capsule toy updates in the medium-queue, but I thought a near 54mm (I don't think you count the tail beyond where the feet should be?!!), articulated-waist Mermaid was a bit of fun!

I had a quick root-through the donation box while still at Peter's, but having a train to catch, when I saw these, and realised what they were, just said to Peter, "Ooh, mail-away boxes, I'll save these, to open as a surprise when I get home", which I did!

Rather exquisite, if historically anachronistic, or unrealistic (?) N-gauge train, branded to Nabisco (now Nestle/Kraft)'s Shredded Wheat! Obviously I don't have sections of powered, N-gauge track lying around here, so I can't test it, but I don't need it, as the locomotive is weighted in the engine-compartment, but unpowered. Issued in 1989, the loco' and coaches were manufactured by Graham Farish (Grafar/GF), and the two wagons are different, with one having a guards-compartment.
 
Couple of hours later - "Have you come across a good transport marketing gimmick?" - Well? Have you, readers! Hee-hee, you can almost hear his brain whirling! Except he clearly hasn't got one, always following, never leading!
 
To enhance the above, and the tray of mini/micro-railway samples, were these floor-runners from Dinky, I well remember Mum trying, with the blue Mallard from this set (or was it Matchbox?), to take the wheels off damaged Lone Star Treble-O stock, in order to get it to run on that track!
 
I seem to remember, as a small boy, some of the underground trains still having that crescent-corridor join, to help them go round corners, before someone worked out that distancing them from each other, like surface trains, was easier! But that may be a false memory and I stand to be corrected on that, too!
 
An incomplete, probably Kinder moped and a wooden erzgebirge station building, round-off the odds in this donation.
 
While this could have been kept for Rack Toy Month, but I'm not minded to look that far ahead, given the fluidity of my life at the moment! Many Thanks to Peter, as always, for all this grist to the twin mills of sample-stash and Blog!

Saturday, October 31, 2020

SCS is for Scary Creature Selection . . . II

And no, we haven't had 'I' yet, but this is only a box ticker, due to they not being in the tag-list yet, and Shaun having done a better job already, but it IS Halloween, and these were on UK Amazon the other day so I grabbed them and here they are; 'Monster Scary Good'

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
And the first thing to understand is that while they may look a bit expensive in on-line sales listings, what you are getting is a huge box, with the equivalent of four or five Airfix 54mm boxes'worth of stuff, and they are ten-times cheaper than some of that stuff coming out of the East right now!

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
However, SCS Direct are a bit naughty in short-packing the sets as per the advertised contents, no doubt something they would counter with the 'Contents May Vary' term, except . . . hold on a dang-minute . . . there is no such term - I think they are counting the headless rider and his horse as 'two figures'; the cheating monkeys! Heay-ho, still cheap-as-chips for what you get!

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
Clockwise from top left, the 'wolves' are err . . . just wolves! I suppose you could use them as werewolves, I've called them dire-wolfs to big them up a bit (I don't want them getting insecurity issues!), but they are just wolves, nicely sculpted servants of Dracula, Satan or the Lords of Morrrdorrr, but just wolves!

The wingless dragon is among my favourites in the whole set if not THE favourite, it conforms to none of the specific traits of it's kind having no wings and a bipedal posture, however it's crest/spine ornamentation reminds me of chess pieces (rooks/castles I guess) and you can imagine him/her heading-off the Red Queen on a flag-stone chess board in an Alice III?

The female barbarian is nice, but hardly a F. Frazetta or C. Achillos' Amazon; she'll do! The frog-warrior though; lovely, and a cheat that we only get two, one of the smaller sculpts as well, if they gave us four they wouldn't be taking the piss on the content count? And for painters out there, he's crying out to spar Little John on a log over the brook - my money's on Phinius Froggie!

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
Same pack drill; The male barbarian is similarly so-so, they are lovely sculpts, but more cave-men than 'fantasy' monsters. While the headless horseman is more 'horror' than fantasy, which is odd, as SCS Direct do Horror sets too?

The winged creature is closer to a wyvern than anything else (Cockatrice/Gryphon in the above listing) but with birds wings not dragon/bat wings and a big bird at that! Not my choice and suffering the worst distortion in the packaging due to it's size and softness.

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
Cerberus is lovely, the Cyclops is equally everything you'd want from such a chap and will go well with the 1:72nd scale one from Atlantic (seen here before I think but I'll try to arrange a comparison shot soonish?).

The 'winged female pan/siren' is also a nice figure . . .

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
Dance of the evil witch-bitches!

. . . who would benefit from paint, but again shows the influence of the G. Gygax and Nottingham Mafia world's on these things and how far they have moved away from the traditional heraldic, 'classical' or even Tolkien'esque picture of them?

12 Unique Sculpts; Aquatic Amazon; Cerberus; Cockatrice; Cyclops With Rock; Direwolf; Dragon Warrior; Drake; Fantasy Creatures; Fantasy Terrain; Female Barbarian; Frog Warrior; Griffon; Gryphon; Harpy; Headless Horseman; Male Barbarian; Mermaid; Monster Scarey Good; Monsters II; SCS Direct; Siren; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Unicorn; Unicorn Miniatures; Unique Toys; Werewolf; Winged Female Pan; Wyrm; Wyvrn;
The distortion (which plagues these - as delivered - like a Corona-virus) is obvious in the two unicorns who should be identical poses! I'm actually going to try and keep them like this, but both bases will need re-setting with hot water. I also shot them with the set of ex-The Works Paint Your Own's (now Unique) we looked at back in August's RTM.

I think while half the problem is the soft material, the other half is their own weight in the box, which in warm Amazon warehousing or going out in trucks on hot days, leaves them settling onto or into each other in the box, all the thin parts and the sheet material (wings, bases) suffered some bending or distortion.

Finally the 'mermaid'; another really nice but un-traditional sculpt, if the winged one is more pan that siren, then this one is a siren or sea-harpy, whist also being clearly a  mermaid (fish's tail, she's no hog!), but with the sword & shield she is also a bit of a sea-amazon. The shield is the weak-point, but paint would hide that.

As you can see they all come in equal quantities of Mediterranean- and Atlantic-grey, in a substitute PVC and that's them!

Thursday, October 31, 2019

D is for Dem' Bones - Novelty Skeletons

I can see a point where we will have only one post or subject on an otherwise quiet 31st, when we will look at all the novelty skeletons and skulls, as I can't remember what we have seen, what's still to be seen and whether some of these were seen last year or not?

Bone Shakers; Claire's Accessories; Claire's Earrings; Claire's Novelties; Coffin; Coffin Novelty; Glow In The Dark; Glow-in-the-dark; Halloween Novelty; Halloween Novelty Toy; Halloween Toy Figures; Halloween Toys; Mallows; Mermaids; Novelty Coffin; Novelty Mermaids; Novelty Skeletons; Novelty Sweets; Skeleton Charms; Skeleton Confectionary; Skeleton Earrings; Skeleton Keyring; Skeleton Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Sweets and Toys; Swizzel's Mallow; Tesco Halloween;
I think these came from Chris Smith (or one of the other kind donators?), and while they don't actually belong together, they nevertheless go-together very well. The skeleton is missing an arm but from the holes in the other three limbs I suspect he came originally as a sort of string-puppet with a simple cross and maybe four, or five  strings? The coffin would suit a fat man in 54mm!

Bone Shakers; Claire's Accessories; Claire's Earrings; Claire's Novelties; Coffin; Coffin Novelty; Glow In The Dark; Glow-in-the-dark; Halloween Novelty; Halloween Novelty Toy; Halloween Toy Figures; Halloween Toys; Mallows; Mermaids; Novelty Coffin; Novelty Mermaids; Novelty Skeletons; Novelty Sweets; Skeleton Charms; Skeleton Confectionary; Skeleton Earrings; Skeleton Keyring; Skeleton Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Sweets and Toys; Swizzel's Mallow; Tesco Halloween;
The coffin is marked-up Swizzles Matlow (who may still exist? You can still get Drumstick lolly's!) and has Bone Shakers on the lid. Inside the lid is a picture which looks like one of those Kinder toys where interlocking flat pieces make-up with ball-and-socket joints to a sort of poppet-doll, but I vaguely recall these as being more candy puzzles where you make up the skeleton as a loose puzzle and then eat him; limb by limb!

MPC's 60mm Vampire is trying to work out how to get in before dawn brakes! Yellow plastic - bugger to photograph!

Bone Shakers; Claire's Accessories; Claire's Earrings; Claire's Novelties; Coffin; Coffin Novelty; Glow In The Dark; Glow-in-the-dark; Halloween Novelty; Halloween Novelty Toy; Halloween Toy Figures; Halloween Toys; Mallows; Mermaids; Novelty Coffin; Novelty Mermaids; Novelty Skeletons; Novelty Sweets; Skeleton Charms; Skeleton Confectionary; Skeleton Earrings; Skeleton Keyring; Skeleton Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Sweets and Toys; Swizzel's Mallow; Tesco Halloween;
Both charity shop purchases I think, both 'new' over-stock/clearance, rather than donations from the general public, the Tesco skeletons glow in the dark, the Claire's Accessories skeleton mermaids are either rainbow chrome/anodised or pure bismuth, but can you shape-form bismuth like that?

Bone Shakers; Claire's Accessories; Claire's Earrings; Claire's Novelties; Coffin; Coffin Novelty; Glow In The Dark; Glow-in-the-dark; Halloween Novelty; Halloween Novelty Toy; Halloween Toy Figures; Halloween Toys; Mallows; Mermaids; Novelty Coffin; Novelty Mermaids; Novelty Skeletons; Novelty Sweets; Skeleton Charms; Skeleton Confectionary; Skeleton Earrings; Skeleton Keyring; Skeleton Novelties; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; Sweets and Toys; Swizzel's Mallow; Tesco Halloween;
These have all come in over the last 12-months (I think?) although we've seen the smaller plastic one before as he's a colour-variation duplicate. Not sure where they all came from but thanks to Adrian, Brian, Chris, Jim, Peter and Trevor should cover it, and I may have found some myself!

The skull is a glow-in-the-dark novelty probably from a larger gum-ball machine, while the bigger skeleton seems to be a bookmark, maybe designed for jacket-pockets , collars or neck-lines? Although he looks quite new, he's marked Hong Kong so he dates from when most, or a lot of schools still had jackets!

Monday, October 22, 2018

Y is for You Wait Ages for One, Then Two Come-along Together!

No; not missives from the PSTSM, although it's funny, he whines I should leave him alone back in April and then spends the summer popping like a seed-pod! And I'm happy I'm so 'not a worry' to him, he only needed the two posts in a row; I'm not under their skin like a tropical bugs-egg's, at all, am I? Hee-hee! And the monkey-lizard is getting quite hysterical . . . not funny - just excited!

No, this is further to the follow-up the other day, this turned-up after I'd posted the article and vacated the Wibbly Wobbly Way for the weekend!


Cocktail Glass Ornaments; Hong Kong Mermaids; Made in China; Made in Hong Kong; Mermaids; Novelty Mermaid Toys; Novelty Toy Mermaids; Plastic Toy Donkey; Plastic Toy Giraffe; Polystyrene Figure; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; The Winner Industrial (International) Co. Ltd.; W; Winner;
The Winner Industrial (International) Company Limited, a bit of a mouthful, still, we'll probably never return to them, but just in case we do, and for the purposes of tagging; 'Winner' will do!

Despite the 'Industrial' in the title they may be just another jobbing wholesaler/shipping agent type, they're probably the same mouldings as those A1 Co., figures we saw on Saturday, certainly the same seven poses, and probably the same glassy transparent polystyrene of my 30-odd year-old example, and a naff novelty I've probably ripped the arse out of by now, but I had nothing-else for today - just lazyness . . . and sorting stuff!

Or are they the quiet-in-the-background manufacturer supplying both the 1980's German importer and 2006's A1 Company? We'll probably never know! A lot of this ephemeral plastic-tat's going to be banned in the near future anyway; if Trump doesn't kill us all first!

Yea! We've been given twelve-years to save the planet - let's have an arms race!

And . . . 

You can have a whole bloody family!

Sunday, October 7, 2018

M is for Mixed Menagerie of Mermaids

The title covers it, a few mixed mermaids - representing all the main toy-use polymer groups!

Capsule Toy Mermaid; Cocktail Glass Ornaments; Disney Ariel; Disney Mermaids; Fish Tank Mermaid; Fish Tank Ornament; Fish Tank Toy; Hong Kong Mermaids; Made in China; Made in Hong Kong; Mermaids; Novelty Mermaid Toys; Novelty Toy Mermaids; Penn Plax; Plastic Mermaids; Polyethylene Toy Figures; Polypropylene Toys; Polystyrene Figure; Poured Resin Castings; Resin Figurines; Small Scale World; smallscaleworld.blogspot.com; The Works;
At the back right is the Resin one we saw a while ago, still available from The Works, leaning against her is a small gum-ball/capsule machine charm in a hard, undecorated styrene.

To their right (the viewers left) is another resin lump, a recent purchase from Penn Plax and one of a set of Disney stuff for fish tanks, note how much better finished it is than their treasure chest, or Easter Island statues.

In front of that lump is a little polypropylene 'Polly Pocket' type thing of the same Disney Ariel/Little Mermaid figurine, probably Bluebird/Kenner for Disney Stores? The tatty-paint pair between the two Ariel's are polyethylene Hong Kong lumps from the 1970's, I suspect they belong with a group of rather eclectic sculpts which include a turtle with gwee-tar and a W-shaped sea-serpent?

At the front is a clear-blue, polystyrene, cocktail-glass decoration I rescued from a party in Berlin in the 1980's (and one of the oldest-sitting non-25mm figures in my collection), unmarked but likely a Hong Kong generic, although the Germans had lots of plastic novelty makers a few years earlier, so it could be domestic production?

The other bright-blue tailed-girl is an unmarked - probably 'China' - mermaid, similar to but not Soma (who's mermaids' are better sculpts), she's probably from a generic 'Toob', rack-toy or possibly via cake-decorating? She's a modern substitute PVC-like rubber/elastomer.

You can judge the scales from the approximately 28mm Polly Pocket alike.

That's a mixed menagerie of mermaids!